
A CHAPTER 



OF 



PROVINCIAL 
HISTORY 



f 



I 



THE 

SILVER PUNCH BOWL 

MADE BY PAUL REVERE 



TO COMMEMORATE A VOTE OF THE HONORABLE 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE 

MASSACHUSETTS BAY 



N 1768 



(Reproduced from the " Boston Sunday Herald " of January 20, 1895.) 



BOSTON: 
NATHAN SAWYER & SON, PRINTERS, 

70 STATE STREET. 
1895. 



THE SILVER PUNCH BOWL 



The reputation of the great Boston mechanic, 
Paul Revere, does not depend solely upon any 
one of his many qualifications. He was as 
ardent a patriot as he ^was an excellent mechanic, 
and as fearless a post-rider for the leaders of the 
Revolution as he was a good soldier, bearing a 
commission as lieutenant from Governor William 
Shirley, under which commission he served his 
Majesty King George II. on an expedition against 
the French at Crown Point. He was a man of 
many resources; and, as his biographer aptly 
puts it, "he was an artificer of many trades, 
who was relied upon by the leading patriots for 
valuable services in the times that tried men's 
souls." 

It has been said that " although his bells were 
hanging in many steeples, his cannon had been 
heard around the world, his articles of silverware 
were sacredly cherished in many a family, a few 
of his caricatures and historic engravings were 
still treasured in the hands of those who knew 
their value, yet Revere himself was comparatively 



unknown. To-day his name is a household word, 
made so in a great measure by the muse of Long- 
fellow." 

That famous midnight ride, set to the music 
of the poet's verse, has travelled many times 
around the world, ever adding in its course to 
the undying fame of the hero and the poet. 

But it is not to celebrate an incident in his 
patriotic career that the writer of this article 
wishes your attention; it is to an incident in 
his peaceful days, when older and possibly 
wiser heads were planning those acts against the 
British crown which Revere and those like him 
carried to a successful termination. 

All my readers know how absolutely without 
price a piece of Revere silverware is to-day, 
how scarce it is, and how our antiquaries and 
collectors would almost sell their souls to pos- 
sess even a spoon which came from the hands 
of the grand old silversmith. 

Here you will be shown, not a piece made for a 
household purpose, but a royal punch bowl com- 
memorative of an historic event, which was the 
worst annoyance that King George III. received 
from the colonists before the Revolution. 

To fully understand why and for whom this 
bowl was made, let us go back to the year 1765, 
and consult the historians of the times, who will 



readily tell us how hot the temper of the people 
had become by contact with the officers of the 
British crown, when King George III., led by 
his ministry, had saddled npon our ancestors the 
infamous Stamp Act, the outcropping of the 
most villanous doctrine ever set forth to grind 
a free and enlightened people into the dust, — 
taxation without representation. 

The Stamp Act levied a duty, or tax, of half a 
penny to twenty shillings on any piece of parch- 
ment or paper on which anything should be 
written or printed. The news of its passage 
reached Boston in April, 1765, and was received 
with alarm and indignation. Not only Massa- 
chusetts Bay, but every province, exhibited a 
spirit of resistance. In Virginia the resolutions 
of the House of Burgesses, drawn up by 
Patrick Henry, gave an impetus to public senti- 
ment throughout the length and breadth of the 
land, and every province was in a blaze of 
excitement and resentment. 

On the 12th of August, the birthday of the 
Prince of Wales, the people of Boston, instead 
of honoring the event by public rejoicings, 
shouted, " Pitt and Liberty ; " and the enthusiasm 
increased until, two days after, the stuffed figures 
of Andrew Oliver, Secretary of Massachusetts 
Bay, who had been appointed distributor of 



6 



stamps, and of Lord Bute, were seen dangling 
from Liberty Tree, the eflSgy of Bute being a 
boot with a devil peeping out with a " Stamp 
Act" in his hand. 

The subsequent proceedings originated with 
Kevere's organization, the Sons of Liberty, who 
cut down these figures, and carried them in pro- 
cession through the streets of the town, borne 
on a bier. The multitude moved in perfect 
order, and their route was lined with towns- 
people. They passed through the Town House 
and under the council chamber, where the Gov- 
ernor and council were sitting, and the ]3atriotic 
crowd shouted, " Liberty, property, and no 
stamps ! " into the ears of the listening digni- 
taries. The Sons of Liberty were preceded by 
some forty or fifty tradesmen. From King (now 
State) Street they proceeded to Fort Hill, and 
there burnt the effigies in a huge bonfire. 
Governor Hutchinson fled to the castle for 
safety by means of a boat from Dorchester 
Point. Old Boston had rarely been so excited. 
It hardly needs mention that all business was 
suspended on that day. 

The officers of government could not appease 
the ire of the people, who in a large body 
proceeded to Kilby Street, where a building had 
been erected by Oliver, which was supposed to 



be the intended office for distributing the stamps, 
and instantly demoUshed it, bearing on their 
shoulders a portion of its ruins to Fort Hill, 
and there made a bonfire with it in full view of 
Oliver's house, — all of which induced Mr. Oliver 
to declare that he would not attempt, directly 
or indirectly, to introduce any of the King's 
stamps into the market. 

A change in the British ministry soon repealed 
the obnoxious tax law; and on receipt of the 
glad tidings. May 16, 1766, the town bells were 
rung. Liberty Tree was hung with lamps, and 
fireworks were displayed in every direction. In 
the evening a magnificent pyramid was erected 
on the Common, on which were two hundred 
and eighty lighted lamps; and subscriptions were 
raised for releasing the prisoners for debt, that 
all might partake in the general rejoicing of the 
Liberty Boys. 

During the quasi existence of the Stamp Act, 
on Monday, August 26, 1765, some boys lighted 
a bonfire in front of the Town House on State 
Street, now known as the Old State House, and 
a great number of people gathered there, whose 
watchword appeared to be "Liberty and prop- 
erty." The assembly soon became a riotous 
mob, and at once beset a house tenanted by 
Mr. Paxton, surveyor of the port, who had made 



8 



himself obnoxious in many ways to the people. 
The owner of the honse stood in front of it, 
and, to save his property, Paxton having left 
with his eflfects, invited the mob to drink a 
barrel of punch at the next tavern, which offer 
was gladly accepted. Thence the mob went to 
Mr. Storey's, deputy register of the admiralty, 
whose house was opposite the north corner of 
the Town House, and staved it to pieces, took 
out all the books and papers and records of 
the admiralty, carried them to Fort Ilill, and 
there with them fed the liberty flame, or 
bonfire. They then visited the house of Mr. 
Hallowell, comptroller of the customs, broke 
into it, and destroyed or carried off everything 
of any value. 

The Lieutenant-Governor, Thomas Hutchinson, 
did not consider himself a party to the Stamp 
Act or custom-house concerns, and gave himself, 
for a time, no uneasiness; but, while he was at 
supper, he was apprised that the mob had him 
in special remembrance. He sent his children 
away, determined to see the event out; but his 
eldest daughter returned for him, and he pru- 
dently left with her. 

The mob entered his house, which stood front- 
ing ISTorth Square, and destroyed or carried off 
everything, including a thousand pounds in specie 



9 



and the family plate, with large and valuable 
collections of manuscripts and original papers 
(the efforts of a long life) relating to the policy 
and features of the country from its earliest 
settlement by Europeans. The loss of these 
papers cannot be estimated. 

Hutchinson was appointed governor of the 
province by King George III. in 1769. In 1772 
a number of his letters were obtained in London 
by Benjamin Franklin, who sent them to Boston, 
which disclosed his secret enmity to his country, 
in one of which he wrote: "There must be an 
abridgement of English liberties in colonial 
administration." The Legislature, on ascertain- 
ing his treachery, voted an impeachment; but 
Hutchinson, obtaining early information of what 
was transpiring, dissolved the Legislature, and 
sailed for England June 1, 1774. There he 
experienced the neglect and contempt of the 
lords, for whom he had sacrificed his reputation 
for honor and integrity, and, becoming an object 
of disgust with all parties, like Arnold, he lived 
some few years in a state of chagrin and de- 
spondence, and died in June, 1780, at the age of 
sixty-nine years. 

When the Stamp Act went into operation, 
November 1, 1765, the day was ushered in with 
the tolling of bells and the firing of minute 



10 



guns, while the flag of every vessel in port was 
at half mast: thus the people showed their 
determination to nullify the Act. Again the 
multitude crowded around Liberty Tree, and 
hung upon its branches the effigies of Grenville 
and Lord Bute. In the afternoon they were cut 
down, and carted, with great solemnity, first, to 
where the General Assembly was in session, and 
thence to the gallows on the T^eck, where they 
were again suspended, and finally torn in pieces, 
and given to the winds of heaven. Then the 
people quietly dispersed to their homes, at the 
request of their leaders, and the night was 
undisturbed by confusion or noise. 

The times were, indeed, tempestuous, even 
with the repeal of the hated Stamp Act, and 
persons began seriously to prepare themselves for 
the storm which evidently was brewing between 
the colonies and the mother-country, the cloud of 
which, no larger than a man's hand, had already 
appeared upon the horizon. 

It was when the news arrived from England 
that the Stamp Act had become a law that the 
great Boston mechanic, Paul Eevere, with a 
few other patriots, organized the famous society 
of the Sons of Liberty, whose active work con- 
tinued until American independence had been 
achieved. 



11 



These Sons of Liberty were, for the most part, 
of the laboring dasses and mechanics, with here 
and there a sprinkhng of lawyers and merchants, 
under the direction of influential leaders. They 
were successfully secret in all their meetings and 
concerted movements. They even issued war- 
rants for the arrest of persons suspected of lack 
of patriotism. They arranged in secret caucus 
for the government of elections and the pro- 
gramme for patriotic celebrations, and, in fact, 
were the mainspring of every public demonstra- 
tion against the government. They were some 
three hundred in number, and they held their 
public meetings around the " Liberty Tree," at 
the junction of Xewbury, Orange, and Essex 
Streets, or, as would be said to-day, Washington 
and Essex Streets. Thousands of people assem- 
bled under this historic tree when the Sons of 
Liberty met there; but their secret meetings, 
according to John Adams, were held in the 
counting-room of Chase & Speakman's distillery 
in Hanover Square. It has been more generally 
believed from Paul Revere's well-known leader- 
ship, that the Sons met at the old Green Dragon 
Tavern in Union Street. 

It was not long before the Sons of Liberty 
had organizations in many towns in this prov- 
ince, and in towns in 'New York, Rhode Island, 



12 



Georgia, Maryland, and South Carolina. Prob- 
ably no single republican organization in the 
history of governments ever before wielded so 
much power for good as that of the Sons of 
Liberty, composed of laboring men and mechanics. 

The name " Sons of Liberty " originated from 
a similar term applied to the Bostonians by 
Colonel Isaac Barre in his speech in Parliament 
when George Grenville brought forward his infa- 
mous scheme of taxation, which resulted in the 
Stamp Act, when Barre said, " The people of 
the American colonies, I believe, are as truly 
loyal subjects as the King has, but a people 
jealous of their liberties, and who will vindicate 
them if they should ever be violated." 

After the delivery of the speech from which 
the foregoing is an extract, the town solicited 
the portraits of Colonel Barre and General Henry 
Seymour Conway, Secretary of State from 1765 
to 1768, able parliamentary defenders of the 
colonies. The request was complied with, and 
the pictures were sent over in 1767; but they 
disappeared from Faneuil Hall after the evacua- 
tion of Boston by the British soldiery. 

It was General Conway who moved to bring 
in a bill to repeal the Stamp Act, after Pitt had 
made his celebrated speech, in which he said: 
"I rejoice that America has resisted. Three 



13 

millions of people so dead to all the feelings of 
liberty as voluntarily to submit to be slaves 
would have been fit to make slaves of the rest. 
... In a good cause, the force of this country 
can crush America to atoms. But, on the 
ground of this tax, v^^hen it is wished to prose- 
cute an evident injustice, I am one who will lift 
my hands and my voice against it. In such a 
cause your success would be deplorable, and 
victory hazardous. America, if she fell, would 
fall like the strong man. She would embrace 
the pillars of state, and pull down the Consti- 
tution with her." 

The news of the repeal of the Stamp Act 
reached Boston in the spring of 1766, and the 
third day following, being May 19th, was set 
apart for general rejoicing. At one in the 
morning the bell on Dr. Byles' church (now the 
Hollis Street Theatre), being nearest to Liberty 
Tree, began to ring. This was answered by the 
bells of Christ Church at the IN^orth End, from 
which edifice Paul Revere, on April 18, 1775, 
hung out his lanterns of warning, and soon 
every town bell was ringing. 

Passing lightly over the year subsequent to 
the repeal of the Stamp Act, provincial history 
brings us to the passage, by the Legislature of 
Massachusetts Bay, of what has been called the 



14 



strongest State paper ever sent forth in the 
province, — the celebrated circular letter written 
by that stern old patriot, Samuel Adams, to the 
other colonies, which passed the Legislature in 
February, 1768, by a nearly unanimous vote. 

From a condition of deep loyalty to the 
Crown at the date of the repeal of the Stamp 
Act, the provincials, in 1768, became its deter- 
mined enemies. Nothing they desired was done; 
their wishes and rights had been disregarded, 
and what they thought to be the worst evil to 
their trade and commerce had been unposed 
upon them, — a hated revenue bill. It is stated 
by contemporaneous history, what may well be 
believed to-day, that the Revolution commenced 
with the aggressive acts of the Crown in 1768. 
But, notwithstanding the unfortunate condition 
of affairs, there was no overt act of violence on 
the part of the people; so well disciplined were 
they by their leaders, that even the anniversary 
of the repeal of the Stamp Act passed away in 
quiet. Charles Townshend, the author of the 
Taxation Bill, had died, and was succeeded in 
office by Lord jN^orth, who would not concede 
a single favor to the colonists; and it was at 
this juncture of affairs that Samuel Adams 
thought out and drafted his celebrated circular 
letter, which contained a reference to every 



15 



question which had arisen between the colonists 
and the home government, such as the right 
of the Crown to tax the province without a 
representation in ParHament, and the powers of 
the Crown; and strong allusion was made to 
the great value there would be to England 
in the growing American trade if fostered and 
protected, and of the great loss that would be 
sustained if that trade were taxed to death to 
support a set of hungry office-holders. For 
seven days was the Legislature engaged in 
debating this circular letter, and it may be pre- 
sumed that nothing important was left out. 

Bancroft, in his history, says of the writer of 
this wonderful production : " The ruling passion 
of Samuel Adams was the preservation of the 
distinctive character and institutions of New 
England. He thoroughly understood the ten- 
dency of the measures adopted by Parliament; 
approved of making the appeal to heaven, since 
freedom could not otherwise be preserved; and 
valued the liberties of his country more than its 
temporary prosperity — more than his own life 
— more than the lives of all." 

Adams wrote to Lord Camden, who had been 
the friend of the colonies in the Stamj) Act 
agitation: "The position that taxation and rep- 
resentation are inseparable, is founded on the 



16 

immutable laws of nature. But the Americans 
had no representation in Parliament when they 
were taxed. Are they now then unfortunate in 
these instances, in having that separated which 
God and nature joined? Such are the local 
circumstances of the colonies at a distance of 
a thousand leagues from the metropolis, and 
separated by a wide ocean, as will forever render 
a just and equal representation in the supreme 
Legislature utterly impracticable." 

Copies of this document, which detailed the 
antagonistic position of the province toward the 
Crown, in consequence of the laws levying 
duties upon imports and other aggressions, were 
sent to every province in the country, the Legis- 
latures of which sustained Massachusetts Bay in 
the position she had taken in issuing the circular 
letter. 

On the 21st of June Governor Bernard trans- 
mitted to the House a government letter from 
Lord Hillsborough, secretary of the provinces, 
a part of which reads as follows: "It is the 
King's pleasure that so soon as the General 
Court is again assembled at the time prescribed 
by the charter, you should require of the House 
of Representatives, in his Majesty's name, to 
rescind the resolution which gave birth to the 
circular letter from the speaker, and to declare 



17 



their disapprobation of, and dissent to, that rash 
and hasty proceeding; and if, notwitlistanding 
the apprehensions which may justly be enter- 
tained of the ill consequences of a continuance 
of this factious spirit that seems to have influ- 
enced the resolutions of the Assembly at the 
conclusion of the last session, the new Assembly 
should refuse to comply with his Majesty's 
reasonable expectation, it is the King's pleasure 
that you should immediately dissolve them." 

On the 30th of June, 1768, the vote was 
taken to rescind the circular letter. ]^^inety-two 
voted not to rescind, and seventeen voted in 
favor. In obedience to the mandate of King- 
George III., Governor Bernard prorogued the 
House on the day of their refusal to rescind, 
but not before they had appointed a committee to 
prepare a petition to the King, praying that his 
Majesty would be graciously pleased to remove 
his Excellency Francis Bernard, Esq., from the 
government of the province. 

But the Sons of Liberty in Boston determined 
to show their appreciation of the patriotic stand 
taken by the ninety-two members of the House 
of Representatives in their vote not to bend 
the loiee to royalty; so fifteen of them com- 
missioned one of their number — their leader, 
and the most eminent among them, Paul Revere 



18 



— to make for them a silver punch bowl to 
commemorate the action of that noble band. 
And this disobedience of the King's mandate, as 
embodied in the act of the ninety-two not to 
rescind that circular, is why Paul Kevere made 
his famous punch bowl in 1768 for fifteen Sons 
of Liberty. 

Round the rim of this bowl are the names of 
the subscribers in a round-robin as follows: John 
Marston, Ichabod Jones, John Homer, John 
White, William Bowes, William Mackay, Peter 
Boyer, Daniel Malcolm, Benjamin Cobb, Ben- 
jamin Goodwin, Caleb Hopkins, John Welsh, 
ISTathaniel Barber, Fortesque Yernon, Daniel 
Parker. 

The inscription on one side of the bowl is as 
follows : " To the Memory of the glorious ninety- 
two Members of the Hon-^ House of Represen- 
tatives of the Massachusetts Bay, who, undaunted 
by the insolent Menaces of Yillains in Power, 
from a strict Regard to Conscience and the Lib- 
erties of their Constituents, on the 30th of June, 
1768, voted not to rescind." 

On the opposite side of the bowl is a liberty 
cap, and under it these words within a wreath: 
" 'No. 45. Wilkes and Liberty," the figures refer- 
ring to that numl^er of the North Britain^ the 
paper conducted by John Wilkes, in which he 



19 

espoused the rights of the colonies. On the 
other side of the wreath are two flags, one con- 
taining the words "Magna Charta," the other 
" Bill of Rights," and the engraving of a torn 
letter, marked " General Warrants," which gave 
the power to search houses, and under which 
Wilkes had suffered arrest. 

This punch bowl belongs to a descendant of 
Wilham Mackay, one of the subscribers, who was 
in that day a merchant. He bought the right of 
ownership of the other Sons of Liberty; and the 
valuable relic is still, and will always continue 
to be, in the possession of the oldest male 
descendant. The name of Revere is stamped 
on the under side of the bowl. 

The names of William Mackay, gentleman, 
Fish Street, and five others appear in the first 
Boston Directory of 1789; viz., Benjamin Cobb, 
distiller, Long Wharf ; John Homer, stonecutter. 
Fish Street; John Welsh, ironmonger. Union 
Street; John White, Scarlet's Wharf; Peter 
Boyer, town treasurer, Sudbury Street. The 
other nine had accomplished their life's journey. 

John Marston, whose name I have first men- 
tioned upon the list, was in 1777 the keeper of 
the Bunch of Grapes Tavern, which was on the 
corner of State and Kilby Streets, formerly 
Mackerel Lane. He was Boston born, and in 



20 



1740 received a commission from Governor 
Belcher of Massachusetts Bay as captain, and 
served at the battle and capture of Louisburg. 
During the Revolution his tavern, the Bunch 
of Grapes, was the resort of the hottest-headed 
patriots. On the occupation of Boston by the 
British, John Marston was arrested and parolled. 
He never took active service in the Revolution, 
but his son, the grandfather of the present 
John Marston of Philadelphia, did, and served 
faithfully to the close of the war. 

Another of the subscribers, Daniel Malcolm, has 
a history. He was of Irish birth, and intensely 
American, and extremely bitter against the 
Crown. He was an importer of wines, and had 
an invoice subject to duty arrive here in a 
schooner. The vessel was brought to anchor 
about five miles below the castle. Daniel Mal- 
colm, with twenty or more sturdy fellows in 
barges, went do^vn at night, unloaded the cargo, 
and returned to the city with sixty pipes of 
wine free of duty. He died in 1769, aged about 
forty-four years. The British soldiers, in revenge 
for his act of insubordination, made a target of 
his gravestone, and there it stands in Copp's 
Hill burial-ground with the marks of the British 
bullets upon it. 

In 1874 this rare old punch bowl, sole relic of 



21 



an event which must have set King George's 
teeth on edge, was taken to the rooms of the 
Massachusetts Historical Society by the late Rev. 
Dr. George E. Ellis, and the transactions on that 
memorable and interesting occasion are recorded 
in the archives of the Society. It was then re- 
turned to the Mackay family, in whose possession 
it has remained until lately. 

A few days ago the writer of this article 
received a letter from his friend John Marston of 
Philadelphia, requesting him to make inquiries 
concerning a Paul Revere punch bowl that was 
understood to be in or about Boston which bore 
the name of his great-grandfather, John Marston, 
upon it. Here seemed a difficult, almost hopeless, 
task. Where should it begin, and where would it 
end? The letter, while being read in the office of 
the New England Mutual Life Insurance Company 
on Milk Street, was listened to by a clerk, who 
stepped forward and said, — 

*'Mr. Stevens, the owner of that punch bowl 
is a direct descendant of William Mackay, one 
of the original fifteen Sons of Liberty for whom 
Paul Revere made it, and he is a clerk in this 
office." 

Here, certainly, my readers will say, was a 
singular coincidence, for, without leaving my chair, 
as it were, the famous punch bowl had been found. 



22 



The owner kindly sent it to me the same day, and 
photographs of it will soon be in possession of 
John Marston of Philadelphia, the great-grandson 
of one of the original subscribers. 

If it is not unlawful to drink punch, the writer 
purposes to have that bowl filled with the best the 
market will afibrd, and on some occasion, at which he 
may be so fortunate as to be present, he intends to 
propose prosperity to the descendants of Paul Revere 
the maker, William Mackay, and John Marston, 
and the other thirteen subscribers whose names 
are on the bowl, as well as drink to the memory of 
the ninety-two members of the honorable House of 
Representatives of the Legislature of Massachu- 
setts Bay, who, undaunted by the menaces of 
villains in power, voted not to rescind the famous 
circular letter, so carefully drawn by that intense 
patriot, Samuel Adams, who, more than any other 
man of his day, threw fear into the ranks of the 
British ministry and consternation into the heart of 
his so-called " Gracious Majesty King George III." 

BENJ. F. STEVENS. 



Note. — The photographs of the famous punch bowl were 
made specially for this pamphlet by Mr. A. H. Folsom, 
48 Alleghany Street, Roxbury. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



014 012 943 4 




